Author: TravellinPenguin

We decided to escape from the hustle and bustle of crazy gridlocked traffic in Hobart for the northwest coast of Tasmania. We will be here a few days over the holiday season. The best part of it is we found a pet friendly accommodation and our dear dogs are with us. The sad part is our three cats have been sent to ‘camp’ as we tell them. (cattery)

Christmas may have fun moments but the stress of the level of activity is never far from home. Why is it we go for months without lunches, parties or dinners with friends then at Christmas everything has to happen at once. On top of running around making sure your cards are sent and gifts are lined up you have to eat non stop. It isn’t that I don’t like Christmas. I just don’t have the energy I used to have and trying to get it is exhausting.

Now we will relax.  Our little accommodation comes with a cute little bungalow, an ocean view, a very tiny back yard and you won’t believe this…a freight train that goes through the yard four times every 24 hours. The ad for the place forgot to mention the freight train. The bungalow is very modern. Lovely as can be. But it

comes with this train. The whole cottagevibrates as it goes by.  The first tremor we experienced was about 10:15 at night. We heard it cut through the darkness. The next one was at 5:00 am. Yes….AM!!!

Another one went through going the opposite direction about 10:30 am. Then the last one heard was this afternoon. I heard the whistle and ran out and got some photographs. Maybe there won’t be so many over the weekend and on Christmas Day.

We keep the dogs leashed so they don’t get onto the track or on the busy road out front which also wasn’t mentioned in the ad. Though that does show up on the map. Beach access is a couple of kms down the road. We can see the water but it is protected wetlands so we can’t get to it.

Just before we drove up here I finally finished the book of short memoirs by Western Australian author Tim Winton. I only listened to it while in the car. It took awhile to finish it. People don’t drive long distances in Tasmania.  I lifted a description of this book from Good Reads:

In The Boy Behind the Curtain Winton reflects on the accidents, traumatic and serendipitous, that have influenced his view of life and fuelled his distinctive artistic vision. On the unexpected links between car crashes and religious faith, between surfing and writing, and how going to the wrong movie at the age of eight opened him up to a life of the imagination. And in essays on class, fundamentalism, asylum seekers, guns and the natural world he reveals not only the incidents and concerns that have made him the much-loved writer he is, but some of what unites the life and the work.

I love Tim Winton because he describes Western Australia  as no other person does. He grew up there during the 1970’s and his stories can be harrowing. They can also be funny. I enjoyed this book quite a bit. We think the same way about social issues and the environment and in this day and age of right winged fanatics it is soothing to the soul to hear an intelligent person discuss what much of the rest of the world thinks. He agrees with me and that is always a bonus.

I have scattered a few photos amongst this post so I hope you enjoy them. Enjoy your Christmas weekend and I hope you find a bit of peace and quiet within it when you can sit back and breathe a quiet sigh of relief.

(Note: I might add I just began reading Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. I have heard so much about it I thought I’d have a look at it. More on that later.)

Odie ponders a beach he has never seen before.

THE STRANGER IN THE WOODS
The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit
By Michael Finkel
203 pages. Knopf.

This was one of the books I checked out of the library recently.  Christopher Knight was 20 years old, living in Maine with his family when he drove off one day in his new four wheel drive his brother recently co-signed for him.

He went as far into the Maine woods as he could possibly go, following as many trails with his vehicle as possible.  He put the keys on the console, walked into the woods and wasn’t seen again until 27 years later.

This true tale is an amazing study about the life of this man who yearned to disappear from life as he knew it.

The story is riveting. How many of us wish we could live in nature and disappear at times. This man did it. Not only did he succeed at the isolation but he lived this life in Maine. Maine has extreme winter conditions.

Michael Finkel is a journalist who was taken with this story when it broke in the media. The book opens when Christopher Knight who survived by stealing food and other necessities from the various cabins around North Pond lake he camped near,  was finally captured by the police. He was able to set up an extensive camp, surrounded by harsh terrain and large boulders. He was close to civilisation but still disappeared. If he would have had a mobile phone he’d of had reception.

He sneaked into the cottages around the lake and took what he needed. He always felt guilty about his stealing but did so anyway. He was meticulous in dress and deed. He once came upon another in the woods and said “Hi” as he passed him. This was his only word spoken in that time. He stated he did not talk to himself.

Michael Finkel lives in Minnesota. He flies to Maine several times. He manages to weasel his way into the life of Christopher Knight but they never become friends. He corresponds with him by mail. Over several years he manages to get the story from this man. I thought the author was at times overly intrusive in this man’s life in order to: either understand his story or just finish his book… or both.

The story is about Christopher’s life in the woods. How he survived. There is a lot of research in the book about others who have lived solitary lives, been hermits, been religious recluses.  There is a good bibliography of other books on this topics. Some I would like to also read.  The book is a quick read. It is a fascinating story and there is much food for thought. I found once I began this story it stayed with me and I could not put it down for long. I found it sad when he was finally captured.

Not everyone believed the story. I did. I thought it all rang true. I could understand what this man felt and I also understood the diagnosis the psychiatrists gave (to a degree). Not everyone is cut out to live within society as most of us know it. Some personalities just don’t cope.

The book is uneven in places. I had a few questions that finally got answered, for the most part. When I finished the book I googled the news articles around his case.  He was prosecuted for the many thefts of homes over the years. However it was reasonable as he only ever stole what he needed. Warm clothes, batteries, sleeping bags, food.

In the end he was sentenced to 7 months jail of which he served while waiting for trial. He had more years on his sentence but all were suspended. He had to complete community service and he had three years probation. His probation ends in March 2018. I wonder if he will disappear again. His age is now 50. It would be a harder thing to disappear as a 50 year old than a 20 year old.

His family never knew what happened to him and were most surprised when he surfaced. He was still living at his original home with his mother, now in her 80’s when the book was published.

I don’t think I’m ever going to forget Christopher Knight or his family. The whole family is unusual.  But they are good, hard working people. They just don’t like anyone in their business and they don’t socialise a lot.  If you enjoy stories of people who live life outside the norm then this is an interesting read. 

I heard about this book so while killing time in the city the other day I had a good look at it in the library.

I enjoyed the art work but the format of the book is quite formulaic. The author, Steven Miller has made a Table of Contents list of the various dog breeds. It seems once he made the list he then searched for art work to put on each two page spread describing what he found.  He had a great deal of success with most pages but a few of the pages I thought were scraping the bottom of the barrel.

While there are a lot of dogs in Australian art (it seems), there does not seem to be enough to do justice to every specific breed of dog.  If you love dogs, as we do in this household, then you will enjoy the vast majority of the art samples in this book.

The information about the art work displayed is a good overview.

I spent over an hour in the library looking at the pictures and reading a bit of the comments about each breed and the art information. Personally I didn’t love it enough to take it home and keep it for another three weeks.  It would be a nice general gift for the hard to buy for dog lover in your life.  Just be prepared for a few less than ideal examples.  I include some of the pages below. You can make up your own mind. I do respect that taste in art is very specific and people seldom agree about what is lovely and what is not.  Worth looking at.

Apologies for not identifying artists. I didn’t have enough time to compile all the information on the day. All of the information is in the book. I just wanted to give you an overview of the book.